What is a monitor stand?

Your desktop computer will normally speaking be delivered complete with a very basic monitor stand. This attaches to the back or bottom of the monitor to hold it up. The main problem with such a basic monitor is, however, that it isn’t adjustable.

A static monitor stand brings with it serious ergonomic health risks for you and your employees. Risks that are easy and affordable to avoid by simply upgrading to an adjustable monitor stand or, better still, a monitor arm, which offers many more possibilities for not a whole lot more cost.

Why a good monitor stand will have a positive impact on your working day

With a high-quality monitor stand, you can adjust the height of your monitor, tilt it to an individual user’s optimal ergonomic angle for viewing, and in some cases even swivel it between landscape and portrait modes.

Here are the most important benefits of replacing the monitor stand you got with your computer with an adjustable monitor stand or upgrading to a monitor arm:

A monitor stand is good for your health and minimises the chances of workplace injuries:
the most important reason for upgrading to a better monitor stand is that each user can then vary the height and angle of the monitor to achieve the most comfortable and ergonomically healthiest position for their unique body. And the adjustability options are significantly greater with a monitor arm.

One height fits (almost) no one: A non-adjustable monitor stand means your monitor can only ever be in one position. With many products, a non-adjustable basic model is designed to suit the vast majority of people in terms of size. Which is why, if you’re not extremely tall or short, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the monitor stand delivered with your monitor will be fine for you. But you’d be horribly wrong.

With a monitor stand, the opposite is true than with other products. Because the monitor screen must be visible to every user, the static monitor stand must hold it at a height that’s visible to the smallest potential users. Which means it’s actually too low for everybody else. As a result, 99% of users of a non-adjustable monitor stand are hunching towards their screen, putting their spine out of natural alignment.

By allowing you to set your monitor at the correct height for you, you avoid unnecessary strain on your spine and other parts of your body. And that’s critical if you want to avoid a whole range of aches, complaints and more serious chronic conditions. To further optimize the ergonomics of your workstation, you could also consider upgrading to a monitor arm.

Getting the best out of your monitor stand

As we’ve seen, a monitor stand seriously enhances your working life ergonomically. Provided you use it correctly. Here’s a few tips on how to position your monitor correctly:

The top of the monitor screen should be at your eye level.

The monitor screen should be at about arm’s length.

Try viewing the screen without thinking about your posture, then check how you’re sitting:

Are you sitting up straight?

Is your neck in a natural, relaxed, neutral position?

Can you see the screen perfectly without having to look up or down?

If the answer to these 3 questions is yes, then your monitor stand is positioned correctly, and you’re good to go!

What to look out for in a good monitor stand

A monitor stand is not a complex product. But all the benefits described above are lost if you don’t get a good one. Here’s what we consider the key things you need to consider:

Strong:your monitor stand needs to be able to hold the weight of any monitor. And remember — that’s not just your current one; but your next one, too, if that turns out to be bigger and heavier. High quality manufacturers will always prominently display the maximum weight their monitor stand can support.

Durable:It should also be made out a durable material, ideally metal, that can withstand the odd accidental knock or an office move.

Adjustable:

Can you slide-and-set your monitor to any height within the monitor stand’s range (i.e. not just fix it at a limited number of points)?

Is the range of height options reasonably wide (so the shortest and tallest team members are also happy)?

Can you tilt your monitor to achieve your ideal angle or dodge that low afternoon sunlight?

Do you want to be able to rotate your monitor between portrait and landscape?

Monitor stand or monitor arm?

In addition to a top-of-the-range monitor stand that more than meets all the above criteria, at Dataflex we also have a wide range of monitor arms. The monitor arm is a related product to the monitor stand, and an even better way to upgrade from the basic monitor stand that came with your computer.

Whether a monitor stand or monitor arm would be your best option depends on your work situation and budget (though the difference in price may be less than you think). A quick browse to help you discover the possibilities available should help you decide which features are must-haves, which nice-to-haves and which unimportant to you.